scretion, on all occasions, it is generally possible not
only to rise to an assured position, but at the same time unsuspectedly
to involve those who stand in our way in a just destruction.

LETTER XIII

Concerning a state of necessity; the arisings engendered
thereby, and the turned-away face of those ruling the
literary quarter of the city towards one possessing a style.
This foreign manner of feigning representations, and
concerning my dignified portrayal of two.

VENERATED SIRE,--It is now more than three thousand years ago that the
sublime moralist Tcheng How, on being condemned by a resentful official
to a lengthy imprisonment in a very inadequate oil jar, imperturbably
replied, "As the snail fits his impliant shell, so can the wise adapt
themselves to any necessity," and at once coiled himself up in the
restricted space with unsuspected agility. In times of adversity this
incomparable reply has often shone as a steadfast lantern before my
feet, but recently it struck my senses with a heavier force, for
upon presenting myself on the last occasion at the place of exchange
frequented by those who hitherto have carried out your spoken promise
with obliging exactitude, and at certain stated intervals freely granted
to this person a sufficiency of pieces of gold, merely requiring
in return an inscribed and signet-bearing record of the fact, I was
received with no diminution of sympathetic urbanity, indeed, but with
hands quite devoid of outstretched fulness.

In a small inner chamber, to which I was led upon uttering courteous
protests, one of solitary authority explained how the deficiency had
arisen, but owing to the skill with which he entwined the most intricate
terms in unbroken fluency, the only impression left upon my superficial
mind was, that the person before me was imputing the scheme for
my despoilment less to any mercenary instinct on the part of his
confederates, than to a want of timely precision maintained by one who
seemed to bear an agreeable-sounding name somewhat similar to your own,
and who, from the difficulty of reaching his immediate ear, might be
regarded as dwelling in a distant land. Encouraged by this conciliatory
profession (and seeing no likelihood of gaining my end otherwise), I
thereupon declared my willingness that the difference lying between us
should be submitted to the pronouncement of dispassionate omens, either
passing birds, flat and round sticks, the seeds of